Interaction of a liquid gallium jet with the tokamak ISTTOK edge plasma

The interaction of a liquid gallium jet with plasma has been investigated in the tokamak ISTTOK. This paper presents a description of the conceived experimental setup, a detailed characterization of the produced jets and the first experimental results related to the gallium–plasma interaction. A stable jet has been obtained, which was not noticeably affected by magnetic field transients. ISTTOK has been successfully operated with the gallium jet without degradation of the discharge or a significant plasma contamination by liquid metal. This observation is supported by spectroscopic measurements showing that gallium radiation is limited to the region around the jet. Furthermore, the power deposited on the jet has been evaluated at different radial locations and its temperature increase estimated.